Thermal Physics

PHY474: Thermal Physics, FALL 2001

Instructor: Miron Kaufman

OFFICE: SI-116, Email:

m.kaufman@popmail.csuohio.edu

Class meets on: TU and TH 4:00-5:50PM in SI-147.

Prerequisites: MTH181,182,281, PHY242,244.

Textbook: Callen: Thermodynamics and an Introduction to Thermostatistics

Recomended Books: Schroeder An Introduction to Thermal Physics, Espinola Introduction to Thermophysics, Zemansky and Dittman Heat and Thermodynamics; Morse Thermal Physics; Reif Statistical and Thermal Physics

Tentative Schedule

Week#1 Fluids, Mechanical Work, Mathematics for Thermodynamics
Week#2,3,4,5 First Law
Week#6 Second Law, Heat Engines
Week#7,8 Joule and Joule-ThomsonExperiments
Week#9 Black Body Radiation
Week#10,11 Thermodynamic Potentials, Stability, Maxwell Relations
Week#12 Third Law
Week#13,14 Phase Transitions and Critical Phenomena in Fluids and Superconductors
Week#15 Summary of Thermodynamics Principles

Important Dates

Last day to drop the course: F October 26
No classes: TH November 22

Exams Schedule

Exam #1 TU, October 16
Final Exam TU, December 11

The final grade is a weighted average of:

Exam #1 30%
Exam #2 40%
Homework, Quizzes 10%
Computer Project 20%

Part of the course is a group project in the computer lab of the Physics Department SI-117A. We will work nontrivial problems in Thermal Physics by using MathCad2001 on the following dates:

TH, September 6:
Computer lab #0- Brief MathCad tutorial; Example of maximum change in entropy
TH, September 20:
Computer lab #1- Estimate the mass of the atmosphere
TH, October 4:
Computer lab #2- Stirling cycle heat engine
Computer lab #3- Stability of Dry Airand Brunt-Vaisala Oscillations
TH, October 18:
Computer lab #4- Ruchardt method for Cp/Cv
TH, November 1:
Computer lab #5- van der Waals fluid
TH, November 15:
Computer lab #6- Thermodynamic Stability
TH, November 29:
Computer lab #7-

Homework

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PHY474: Thermal Physics, FALL 2001

Tentative Schedule

Important Dates

Exams Schedule

The final grade is a weighted average of:

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